MLHS band students pick up instruments for remote study

MOSES LAKE — Students stopped by Moses Lake High School on Wednesday to pick up instruments for band classes this year with the semester kicking off remotely.

Without being able to meet in groups, putting together ensembles or collaborative works is difficult to accomplish through the remote learning platform. Dan Beich, MLHS band director, said the focus entering the school year is trying to keep the aspects of band going that draw so many kids to join.

He said doing so starts with recognizing the “myriad of reasons” students join the program.

“Some of them, it’s all about the music, some of them it’s all about the friends, then there’s some it’s all about the trips,” Beich said. “I think if, by the end of the year, our kids show ‘x’ progress in all these different sections, I’ll consider this a success.”

Beich said he was looking forward to getting to interact with students face-to-face, even if just for a few minutes as they picked up their instrument on Wednesday. Meeting with students gives him a chance to show them some things that might be more difficult to do over a Zoom meeting, he said.

Beich said he’s looking forward to being able to have students working in small groups, working on smaller combos, sectionals, or quartets, once it is safe to do so.

“We have plans to take small groups of kids, I think the limit right now is under five, as long as we’re social distanced and when we’re not playing have masks on,” Beich said. “And, in my mind, the safest place is outdoors.”

Band students are a tight-knit group thanks to the amount of time they spend together working on things, Beich said. He said a typical group of high school students beginning a class are maybe quiet, keeping to themselves. With band students, he said it’s like a “riot” when they get back together.

Even new kids entering the districts are quickly welcomed in as one of the family, he said.

“They’re sort of immediately embraced as one of our own,” Beich said. “As far as what we have planned to foster that, one of our main goals is to maintain the connection and give kids a chance to connect with each other each time we have scheduled meetings.”

Without the ability to work on group pieces, he said the focus entering the year is on working with students individually, something that’s difficult to do in normal years.

Pablo Hernandez is entering his second year of teaching and his first year as a band director with MLHS. While he wishes they could be in person, he said he’s confident in their ability to help students improve independently as musicians through the digital classroom meetings.

“What we’re focusing on in online band is building the student’s instrument techniques, the student’s ability to read music, music literacy, and continuing to grow our band family,” Hernandez said. “Our program has a really amazing family atmosphere.”

Hernandez said everyone feels like part of a big team at MLHS, which he said is common in band programs from his experience.

The usual ninth-grade band camp, where new students get a chance to become acclimated to the program, couldn’t be done this summer. Luckily, they worked with the upperclassmen and seniors to become student leaders who can help out the newer students in the program. Hernandez said he expects a lot of positives to come out of this new setup, with upperclassmen able to help them assist some of the newcomers this fall.

He said he thinks of the added time before they’re able to meet as a group sort of an “extended training camp” to begin the year. Hernandez said, while it does require a little more time and work, being able to work with students one-on-one so much early on is almost a blessing in disguise.

“When we get a chance to come back and make music at the same time after we all worked so long and so hard on our individual skills, it’s going to be an incredible experience,” Hernandez said.